Training
by Gothic-Rainbow
Summary: She was support. Background. Their teammate, never herself. So she trained. Sakura centric.


_Hey, long time no write! This is a simple one shot that was nagging me to be written. So I gave in. It's three written pages, and my handwriting's cramped, so I don't know how it'll turn out here. Oh well, only one way to find out..._

_**Disclaimer:** I own some books, my bed and my shoes. Do you think I own Naruto?_

She had trained and tried and fought and pushed and pushed and **pushed** and bled and healed and triedsodamnhard but still it wasn't enough. She was always left behind, whether they did or didn't realise. The first to abandon her had dark hair and a darker heart; saw her as too bright, too happy, too much. The next to go went with a feral smile and a broken heart; he came back strong still grinning, heart healed. Yet he breezed past, there but not there, a distant figure that only looked like her friend.

With them she was invisible. Without them she was nothing. She was never herself, individual, always "Naruto and Sasuke's teammate" or " the pink-haired strong girl". She couldn't take it personally, tried hard to smile, be the support but eventually even support wasn't needed. Then when the quiet one came, the one so like the Uchiha she was pushed aside again, because he was ROOT and he was rude and he made Naruto act like he would with Sasuke.

Everyone saw her as there. Never wavering, always strong, smiling. Background. Her teacher ignored her, and her master saw nothing but the orangeblueyellow eye noise who was taught by a dear friend. They took her for granted. Everyone did.

So she trained and tried and fought and pushed and pushed and **pushed** and bled and healed andtriedsodamnhard and kicked and puched and hit and hurt.

The training ground was empty save a pink blur twirling and hitting and training. The girl stopped, staggerd. So tired, but knowing to give up was to be weak and she'd be what everyone took her for; background noise, unneeded support. She gritted her teeth, swiped sweaty hair of her neck and face tying it into a small ponytail. She stood panting in a circle of training posts showing their individual wear and tear. She pictured the faces, one by one. The cold glare of her one time friend. The cheeky grin and hot blue gaze and orange. Unseeing grey eyes, unseeing red. Amber eyes drawn away. Other eyes, other faces, passing over - ignoring - patronising gazes - pitying glances - never directly where she could see, like the whispers. Only snatches of conversation.

No more.

In a blaze of movement and breathtaking rush of chakra and a yellscreamcryroar that held so much yet not enough, a boom resounded, dust floated and trees screamed.

Quiet.

* * *

The echo of her emotions lingered in the village, sending shivers down spines and people wanting comfort. The Hokage and her guests, a certain eye noisy boy, an unemotional fool and an unseeing allseeing teacher, all heard and all shuddered and three wondered what had caused it. Nothing human should make such a noise, to sound so, so...

Tsunade's eyes lit up in some emotion.

'What was that?' The boy's voice was quiet, blue eyes wide. This time Tsunade looked at him, and he stayed where he should've stayed, in the room between her leader and a teammate. She smiled. Her apprentice had grown into herself at last.

'That, Naruto,' she said quietly, calmly, resting chin on folded hands, 'was a strong power refusing to be ingnored any longer.'

* * *

The dust settled, the quiet stayed. The rose haired emerald eyed girl stood in the middle of what used to be a training ground. All that was left was a deep dip, 200 feet in diameter. The training posts and some tees had been destroyed. No big chunks, it was all very neat. All that remaind were piles of dust.

Sakura's head slowly faced the scene. She took it in calmly. Her whole body vibrated and hummed and shimmered in something not quite pure power but nothing less than it, either. She held herself straighter, thought cearer, saw truer. There was no need to feel sorry for herself, not any longer.

Smiling Sakura left the dip and headed towards the village, the Hokage tower. She had to train her power. Not Naruto's, not Sasuke's, not Sai's. No need to be protected. Not Tsunade's borrowed strength, either. All her own. Not the background, not support. After all, why be support, a wall, a rock when she chould break them with her pinky finger? Sakura laughed, a free sound. Her power stretched and flexed and fluttered to it.

Time to come into the foreground. Time to set the records straight.

_Yay!! I quite like it, but obviously this is my take on her and her thoughts. I just think she gets underestimated a lot, and that she still has something to give._

_Well, that's it. And for those who read my MR story, Surprise, Surprise I won't be updating it. I might take it down and repost it. Well, at least the last chapter. It got...weird. I was making it up as I went along, and there was something in there about talking animals. That's just not right, Total the exception. He was an experiment after all._

_Anyway, I hope it didn't suck too much, and please review, or at least tell me where I went wrong or right. Preferably right._


End file.
